This invention relates to communications technology, and more particularly to interface architecture, communications architecture and protocol, and interface bus structures, timing and related new configurations.
These elements of communications architecture, interface protocols, and interface bus structures, etc., all interrelate into a total system. The prior art systems have traditionally reached a certain level of maturity at which point a new architecture is adopted because the technology capabilities have surpassed the capabilities of the communications infrastructure.
The IBM PC bus represents an early bus architecture characterized by insufficient bandwidth to support video applications and a single bus master design where only the system could arbitrate use of the bus. This architecture has been superseded by the Intel PCI bus, which supports higher bandwidth applications than the IBM PC bus and multiple bus masters. Other bus architectures that have been superseded in recent years include the Apple/NuBus, developed by MIT and Texas Instruments, used in Apple Computer products, and the DEC Turbo Channel.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a multi-configuration communication compatible protocol and infrastructure which provides the necessary upward and downward compatibility through generations of multiple non-compatible communications infrastructure-based subsystems, to share a common communications infrastructure.
This invention relates to a data communication system. In particular, it is an improvement that is applicable to the communication and routing of digital data.
Data communication architectures for the hard-wired communication of digital data have included bus architectures such as the IBM PC bus, cabled architectures such as the IBM 370 channel controller, and the more recently, fiber-optic based architectures. These approaches to digital data communication have fixed characteristics. The bandwidth is fixed, the number of signal lines is fixed, and the source and destination of the communication is fixed.
It would be extremely advantageous to system designers to have a digital communication architecture to build on that exhibited flexible and adaptable characteristics. Especially valuable would be an architecture that allowed for multi-directional communication, continuously variable bandwidth keyed to the bandwidth requirements of the signal being sent, continuously variable physical and logical channel allocation, and interchangability between the source and destination.
These requirements place extreme demands on the organization and allocation of function between hardware and software in a digital system.
Another aspect of the present invention relates generally to video composition systems and particularly to a method and apparatus for selectively combining video images into a video signal.
The Ultimatte.TM. system (manufactured and sold by Ultimatte, U.S.A.) keys to a single color and uses that key to map an additional source of video into a keyed area. See also U.S. Patent assigned to Ultimatte. These systems have a lot of limitations. A major limitation is that it can only map to a single color in one area, and can only map to that one area or region within a display frame screen.
Ultimatte systems are also spatially dependent. In other words, colored objects cannot be moved around (e.g., you can't move the camera) or else the perspective of the mapping shifts. That rapid shift is not something that can be computed real-time, or even computed very quickly. There are many limitations on uses of the single-color or Ultimatte process.
Princeton Electronic Billboard's system inserts a static ad into an existing program stream. A super computer processes the video in real-time and uses the computer in a pattern recognition mode. When the computer recognizes a particular pattern or background, it provides the information for an advertisement to be keyed on top of that background.
One of the disadvantages of this system is that it requires very expensive hardware. It's impossible to do it at the point of program delivery to a consumer and it's unreasonable, even for cable head-ends, to afford this technology.
Another problem with the Princeton system is that if a program fades from one camera view to another, the image recognition cannot detect that it is seeing the second image until enough of it is revealed to be locked in. The effect is, when the super computer finally locks in, the ad suddenly appears. It is very disconcerting to see a billboard suddenly appear.
There is a resulting need for an economical process and apparatus for merging one video source into another video source. There is also a need for an economical process and apparatus for merging multiple video sources into another video source. There is also a need for an economical process and apparatus for merging multiple video sources into another video source mapped into 3-D space. There is also a need for an economical process and apparatus for merging multiple video sources with synthetically generated sources.